Clayton Kershaw delivers ‘perfect’ moment as Dodgers clinch playoff spot
Clayton Kershaw kissed his family, beat a fist in his glove, then made a familiar side of the dodgers canoe at Chavez Ravine Mound.
This time, however, he did it alone.
In what was his last departure from the regular season at the Dodger Stadium, one day after having announced that he would retire at the end of this year, Kershaw took the ground while the rest of his teammates remained behind and applauded.
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On a night of appreciation for his 18 -year -old career, the moment belonged to him – and a worshiper fans who watched each stage.
The first time Kershaw launched Dodger Stadium, he was a highly awaited and highly anticipated hope. His immense talent. His future Hall of Fame before him.
When he did it for potentially the last time on Friday evening, he was a very popular veteran and long admired by 37 years. Bewitched by failures which formerly define its baseball mortality. Celebrated for the way he had learned to overcome them.
Few athletes in modern sport play for a team, for so long. Less from the experience of the emotional extremes that Kershaw was put through, or to succeed in resisting the storm.
When Kershaw was asked about Dodgers fans at his retirement press conference on Thursday, it was the dynamic he reported quickly.
“It was not smoothly driving,” he said. “We had our ups and downs for sure.”
Between limitless cheers and intermittent huae, historical milestones and horrible sorrows, triumphant summers and tortuous falls.
During the regular season game, baseball may have never seen a more accomplished launcher. Kershaw’s 2.54 era is the lowest in the era of the living ball among the 100 departures. He is one of the 20 members of the 3,000 MLB stick withdrawals. He is one of the four launchers to win three cy Youngs and an MVP prize.
In October, however, no one was no longer checked. There were implosions against the Cardinals of Saint-Louis in 2013 and 2014. The infamous fifth match of the 2017 World Series against the Astros of Houston who steal signs. The appearance of Secours Cauchemardesque in 2019 against the Nationals of Washington. Nine trips to the playoffs during its first 11 seasons, without winning a championship once.
At that time, it made Kershaw’s relationship complicated with Dodger Nation. He was heroic until he didn’t. Clutch to the fall. It didn’t matter that he often launched a short rest, or by intense injuries and workloads, or in situations that no other launcher would have ever been loaded. It was the embodiment of the repeated failures of the Dodgers. The face of a franchise that could never erase the last obstacle.
1 and 1 Clayton Kershaw reacts after having made Jerar Incarnacion in San Francisco participate in a double game on the third round Friday evening at the Dodger Stadium. 2 Kershaw recognizes the cheers of the crowd of the Dodger stadium after leaving the match in fifth round. 3 and 3 Kershaw recognizes the crowd after leaving the fifth round match. 4 Kershaw is congratulated by his teammates as he leaves the game. 5 Kershaw is adopted by the Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, as he leaves the match in the fifth round. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s almost like a relationship, right?” Said Kershaw. “You have been there for 18 years with them. There are good times, and then there are times when you probably want to break for a minute. ”
In his case, however, this is how sustainable link was built.
He persevered through such struggles. He was coming back every season. He finally overcome the bump with the titles of the World Series in 2020 and 2024. He never even distinguished his darkest moments.
“With this responsibility as as, you must do a lot of potential control or failure,” said director Dave Roberts. “Everything was not optimal for him. But he never complained.
“I think fans, certainly at his highest moments, have shown their love for him and their support.
“I think respect, universal respect, is certainly justified 10 times.”
During a 6-3 victory against the San Francisco giants who ended only a few minutes after the Dodgers won their 13th consecutive place in the playoff series, this was celebrated from the first Kershaw launch to his last.
The left -handed launched 4⅓ two -point ball sleeves, withdrawing six strikers on four strokes and four goals on bullets, but it was not his statistics that were counting. He fought with his command, had only 89 mph on average with his quick ball and left the mound with the dodgers dragging, but the memories of this night will go far beyond.
From the moment Kershaw emerged on the ground at 6:23 p.m., the fans got up. They applauded and sang its pre-match routine in the outer field and the enclosure of the lifts. They rugged when his name was presented shortly before the first throw.
They knew that it could be his sending of Dodger Stadium, a sentimental opportunity to thank you for all that he has accomplished and everything he endured.
Kershaw also felt a whirlwind of emotions, sitting with tearful eyes in the outside field while taking the scene before the start of the match.
“You try to focus on the night and go out, but it’s a special day,” said Kershaw. “This is the last time here, potentially, and this place has mean a lot for me for so long. I didn’t want to think about it. “
At the start of the first round, his teammates made sure he wouldn’t. While Kershaw was heading for the mound, the Dodgers Fielders made an impromptu decision to stay behind and leave it serenade with prolonged ovation.
“I didn’t like it,” Kershaw joked. “But it was a big gesture.”
And while he was standing alone on the mound, he smiled and made a sign at a time of the 18 -year -old manufacturing.
“This is one of those moments when Dodger fans, you have all seen him for 18 years and looked at his greater career and everything he lived,” said Roberts. “People are going to look back and go:” I was there for the last time that he started a home game at the Dodger stadium “. “”
From there, the night was surprisingly tense.
Kershaw abandoned a Home Run on the third launch of the match at Heliot Ramos. He spent the following four rounds to fight traffic, failing two runners later in the first, two others in the second and two others in the third after a simple Wilmer Flores RBI.
In fourth row, it was clear that Kershaw was not long for the evening. His pitch count increased. The lift enclosure was active. And with two withdrawals in the English Channel, Willy Adames extended an at-bat with two strikes.
However, at the ninth throw of this battle, Kershaw finally obtained a puff on a cursor. For the first time since the first round, the Dodger stadium broke out again.
Look at the full start of the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw launcher against the Giants of San Francisco at the Dodger Stadium Friday evening.
Kershaw returned to the mound in the fifth and withdrew Rafael Dévers with a quick bullet on the knees.
With that, his night was over, perhaps with his career as Dodger Stadium.
“I feel like the moments we have right in front of us, that’s the story,” said Miguel Rojas, a second goal player.
“You just had to be there to really feel the emotions,” added Mookie Betts.
In the stands, the applause echoed a closed window crowds of 53,037 – including the former teammates Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson and Aj Pollock; As well as other Los Angeles sports icons from Magic Johnson to Matthew Stafford (a childhood friend from Kershaw from Texas).
After receiving hugs from his inner field and kissed Roberts with apologies (“I’m sorry to have launched so badly tonight”) and a request (“not trying to be disrespectful, but I keep this ball”), the launcher then took the slow walking of the rubber.
The Dodgers launcher, Clayton Kershaw, makes an embroidered gesture as he leaves the mound to a standing ovation at the Dodger stadium on Friday evening.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He took a deep inspiration. He gave a motion upsetting his family sitting at the dressing room. He put on his cap and said several times thank you to a crowd that has never stopped delighting.
“It was not always a smooth driving, but you stayed with me,” also reappeared Kershaw, who also reappeared from the canoe for a noisy curtain call, reiterated in an interview on the post-match field.
“Dodger Stadium is a super special place, and fans are the main reason why,” he added at his post-match press conference with journalists. “They continue to go out and support us. Each evening there are 50,000 people. I would like to have better words other than I am so honored and grateful to hear these ovations. I never take this for granted. “
Now, another October is waiting for – the Dodgers (87-67) officially won a place in the playoffs on Friday after having headed on the leading circuits of Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the lower half of the fifth.
The role of Kershaw in this last title Chase is uncertain. With a loaded rotation, but a trembling emergency body, the best use of the dodgers to him could get out of the enclosure of the lifts. Roberts said he was considering Kershaw who adapts somewhere on the list of playoffs. Kershaw said he could “do the calculation” and is ready to “do everything I can to help”.
Anyway, his inheritance with the Dodgers, and his fans base forever, had already been graciously cemented.
“I am a little mentally exhausted today, honestly, but it is the best feeling in the world now,” said Kershaw. “We have obtained a victory, we won a place in the playoff series, and I was able to stand on this mound one last time. I cannot be more grateful.”
“Nuit parfaite”, a-t-il ajouté plus tard. “It was really.”
